devoid
[dih-void]
- not possessing, untouched by, void, or destitute (usually followed by of).
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- to deplete or strip of some quality or substance: imprisonment that devoids a person of humanity.
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Origin of devoid
Synonyms
See more synonyms for devoid on Thesaurus.com1. lacking, wanting, destitute, bereft, barren.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for devoid
Contemporary Examples
This is comedy based on a cold humor, detached, euphemistic, devoid of any generosity.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim PresidentPierre Assouline
January 9, 2015
Yes, it was a fairly disappointing year in music—one devoid of Goth teen prodigies, Yeezy, and galvanizing rock anthems.
The 14 Best Songs of 2014: Bobby Shmurda, Future Islands, Drake, and MoreMarlow Stern
December 31, 2014
It is refreshingly—to this reader, at least—devoid of phrases like “a new study shows” or “data now support.”
Many US embassies are built like prisons, devoid of character.
If this is institutional racism, then the term is devoid of meaning.
Standardized Tests Aren’t Racist: How Brown Kids Can Ace the Test to Get Into New York’s StuyvesantJohn McWhorter
June 27, 2014
Historical Examples
They are thieves—they will steal from you before your very face, so devoid are they of all shame.
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
No good could come of an alliance with a man so devoid of all feelings of honour or of gratitude.
Micah ClarkeArthur Conan Doyle
When sober, he was accessible, conversable, and devoid of pride.
Beaux and Belles of EnglandMary Robinson
Or is the life of mind sufficient, if devoid of any particle of pleasure?
PhilebusPlato
Philosophy had become extravagant, eclectic, abstract, devoid of any real content.
PhaedrusPlato
devoid
- (postpositive foll by of) destitute or void (of); free (from)
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Word Origin
C15: originally past participle of devoid (vb) to remove, from Old French devoidier, from de- de- + voider to void
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for devoid
adj.
c.1400, shortening of devoided, past participle of obsolete verb devoiden "to remove, void, vacate" (c.1300), from Old French desvuidier (12c., Modern French dévider) "to empty out, flush game from, unwind, let loose (an arrow)," from des- "out, away" + voider "to empty," from voide "empty" (see void (adj.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper